: : Thanx again, everybody, for all the help. Even though my questions have probably been discussed hundreds of times, this really gives me a chance to get a better understanding of Tolkien's work.

: My pet theory for Trolls:

: Torture and warp a few Ents for several millenia. Replace the ligno-cellulose of their bodies with silicates and hey presto! you get a stone troll.

My theory of Trolls (Sorry, but I can't label this a crackpot one, because I think it's pretty sound):

Take a few lesser spirits (Maiar if you will) and mate them with carven images animated with Morgoth's sorcery (stone golem type things).

This explains why they would be living creatures capable of speech (though on the dim side), who could also be turned to stone in daylight (a very non-living thing to do). It almost seems like they were an experiment that was only partially successful.

Morgoth may not have been able to create living things ex nihilo, as Eru could do to the songs and prayers of the Valar, but he was obviously a master breeder. And Tolkien would have considered mating with inanimate objects and producing things with partial or crippled souls (or lacking souls entirely) a true abomination.

Once Trolls became distinct entities that were alive (in a general sense), then it would have been easy (relatively speaking) to breed them with orcs or men or whatever to develop the Olog-hai who could endure the sun.

That's my theory anyway. And only a theory. An interpretation. Anyone have any better ones?

Dave C-Q